Don’t worry, no needles are involved; it’s the kind of shot that got you into this mess to begin with.

Luckily, I received my sample the morning of New Year’s Eve. As a result, I wanted to push this Recovery Shot to the limit, so I drank a box of Franzia with a friend until roughly 5:30 AM the next day. The peanut butter chicken at 4:00 AM sounded good at the time, but by 8:00 AM, it was clearly a bad choice.

The Hangover Joe Recovery Shot looked conspicuously similar to a 5-Hour Energy shot except for one noticeable difference — there was a picture of Stu from the movie “The Hangover” on the bottle, smiling at me toothlessly. At least I didn’t feel that bad.

Since it looked similar to 5-Hour Energy, I compared the ingredients and there were several similar ones like caffeine (Hangover Joe’s has the rough equivalent of one cup of coffee), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, Taurine, Phenylalanine and Niacin. But Hangover Joe’s contained a slew of natural ingredients that 5-Hour didn’t have, including tea leaf extract, black pepper extract, acai fruit extract and goji berry concentrate.

Having taken 5-Hour Energy before, I wasn’t crazy about it. It worked, yes, but it also made my mind feel like it was running a million miles an hour. It gave me so much energy I felt like I was on some kind of extreme synthetic stimulant and generated more nervous energy than anything else.

The Hangover Joe product was much smoother. Prior to taking it, I was yawning and run down, my head was loopy and achy. About 20 minutes after I took it, I could feel a noticeable difference in energy level. I had actually laid down on the couch about five minutes prior to consuming it because I thought sleep was the only thing that could make me feel better. But as I laid there under a blanky, watching Texans QB Matt Flynn put together what will doubtlessly be the best game of his pro career, I lost the feeling of tiredness — it was a big surprise how fast and smooth it was. I felt better and energized, but I didn’t feel accelerated or loopy. It actually made my entire body feel better, not just my head or stomach. Dare I say it: I felt normal.

And it didn’t just last for a couple hours before the inevitable crash where you become more tired than you were initially; I made it through the entire day without a nap and even watched the Sunday night game featuring the Cowboys and Giants in its entirety.

I’m no scientist, but I think the natural ingredients, in addition to the more speedy synthetic substances, is what makes Hangover Joe’s superior to 5-Hour Energy. At no point did I feel the inevitable lag that you get from consuming excessive coffee either. Put simply, Hangover Joe’s “The Hangover” Recovery Shot works and I would recommend trying it for yourself.